Bitcoin Mining Operations Now Use More Energy Than Ireland

It's been a big week for Bitcoin. The price of one bitcoin hit $13,000 on Wednesday, marking a 1,200 percent increase in value this year. The price of Bitcoin isn't the only thing rising. The energy used to "mine" the cryptocurrency is also skyrocketing -- and people are getting worried . The Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index tracker puts Bitcoin’s current estimated annual energy use at almost 32 terawatt-hours, roughly equivalent to Serbia’s yearly electricity consumption and ahead of at least 159 other countries, including Ireland and most nations in Africa. Each Bitcoin transaction is estimated to require the same energy as 4,000 Visa card transactions, said Francois Sonnet, co-founder of the energy generation data project ElectriCChain. And Power Compare, a U.K. utility pricing comparison site, noted that Bitcoin energy consumption had risen by almost 30 percent in the ...